THE STATIN BUBBLE BURSTS:STATINS CAUSE MUSCLE SYMPTOMS IN 50% MORE THAN NONUSERS IN PRIMARY CARE – WITHOUT REDUCING NEW DIABETES!

A new study from University of Tübingen shows that in 1000 consecutive patients in primary GP care, the incidence of muscular symptoms was FIFTY PERCENT higher in those on lipid-lowering drugs LLD – statins- than those not.

There can be few other nations as methodical and meticulous as Germany, so it is unlikely that their LLD patients were being unnecessarily or excessively treated.

As this column regularly points out, statins do not address the basic pathogenesis of common lipidemia ie overeating/overweight/ insulin resistance. Hence statins in general reduce even cardiovascular disease CVD no more than 40%, and overweight, diabetes and non-CVD not at all.

So statins inflame muscle even in moderate dose. Thus is it any surprise that despite their claimed beneficial effect on circulation and CRP, they have no benefit in reducing heart failure in recent major trials? whereas in a rat study metformin has just been confirmed to halve heart failure. As a team from Univ Dundee UK wrote last year, “there is increasing evidence to suggest that chronic heart failure (CHF) is an insulin resistant (IR) state and that the degree of IR correlates with the severity and mortality of CHF.. there is now evidence that metformin may not only be safe but could potentially be useful in the setting of CHF.”

So we must always ask: why (except to profit the manufacturers) use statins except in severe refractory lipidemia? In a recent meta-analysis from Albert Einstein College and Cleveland Clinic, once again there is no evidence that statins reduce the incidence of new diabetes.

whereas metformin halves new diabetes , reduces overweight in the major preventive RCTs, and in diabetics type 2 virtually halves all chronic major degenerative diseases of aging, and premature mortality.